Interview with Marilonah Copra: ‘Things would have turned out very differently if I had received a violin’

Not a violin, but a bass

The bassist was born in Lelystad but moved to Curaçao with her mother and brother when she was six. She also started playing the bass at that age, but that wasn’t her own choice: ‘I come from a large, musical family. My grandmother decided to finance instruments for all the grandchildren. My most musical uncle, who also graduated from the conservatory, was tasked with giving each grandchild the right instrument. Things would have turned out very differently if I had received a violin, but I got a bass. I didn’t like that at all; I really thought it was a man’s instrument. When I was seven, I did my first performances with my cousins. Everyone thought it was so cool: that little girl with that big bass. That’s when I threw myself into it fully after all.’

Ibanez endorser

Now Marilonah is a proud Ibanez endorser. She got to choose her own bass and went for the BTB, a five-string: ‘I always played four-strings until Bnnyhunna asked me to join his all-girl band, with Nadesh Ligthart on drums. He had a Sire five-string and wanted me to play on it. It was his gig, so I did it. I found that fifth string a bit scary, but it was manageable after some practice. After I left that band, I continued with four-string basses until I got this BTB. I am now really discovering the five-string for the first time in my life. It requires a different approach; it is a kind of different language. I recently played this bass for the first time at Paradiso with Arp Frique and I could definitely feel it in my left hand, partly because I’ve had an injury. I had two “moments”, but hey, I’m human and not a robot.’ I was on the E-string for a moment instead of the A. I recovered quickly, but I thought: pay attention and practice, Mari! It gave me a bit of a kick in the butt.

Read the full interview with Marilonah Copra on De Bassist’s website.